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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 21st, 2023

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  • Not too late to install all the tracker blockers, all the metrics blockers, and also start using plug-ins and tools to pollute the data one creates online so it is full of noise. Leave the cloud as much as possible too. Minimize social media use. Minimize use of mobile phones for social media as they are data polluters. Disable and cease using health tracking features in watches and such. Delete (well, “delete”) what you can now before data preservation laws change. Companies don’t like the cost of saving everyone’s data so they often do have retention policies.

    Any of these steps help.

    Longer-term, all medical databases storing patient records should have tons of fake patients inserted to create noise there too, in lieu of better, safer storage policies. This is more of a challenge. People at risk may want to request copies of their medical records now and see if the provider has a deletion policy.











  • Oh man, seriously, regulations are the only thing keeping people safe or it would be junk fees all the way down. Take wireless phone service in the US right now, the main carriers say you have a rate plan of x, but then they tack on all the taxes and fees they have to pay and pass them onto you, saying they’re taxes you have to pay. The price also then varies depending on where you live, in some places the “taxes and fees” can add $15-20/month to a single phone line. Nowhere near the advertised price.

    Now, once or twice a year, they also add on new made up “fees” whenever their quarters aren’t looking as profitable as they expect, so you’ll see another $5/month or $7/month charge tacked on.

    Then they don’t let you pay your bill with a credit card if you want an “autopay discount” - a discount that used to exist for carriers to encourage people to stop using paper billing.

    More and more people are switching to paper billing and mailing in checks just to make those companies have to waste more money/resources for being so dickish.

    If they were regulated, they’d be forced to just have a flat price, you could pay with any money, and they’d still be profitable, and the bill would be less confusing.



  • Talk about false advertising. Tried to order contact lenses on Lens dot com the other day for someone. Advertised price with rebate seemed reasonable. Create account, (as they require that to proceed) go on about choosing options and filling in info.

    Only at the last order page, do they tack on $250 of “taxes and fees” (even though it’s a medical device so it’s not taxed) and then try to explain away in an info widget that taxes are “stuff we may be charged but we’re just making up this bullshit number.” Oh, and they charge shipping.

    1800contacts did not do either of these things. LensDirect seemed equally non-bullshit but their prices were a bit higher.

    How many people get scammed by the “taxes and fees” field figuring, “welp, I guess that’s just the price of America.”?

    Edit: de-hyperlinking the lens site, they don’t deserve any clicks, only hate.